The gloves have finally come off and Google is beginning to reveal the strategy behind its purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2011 for $12.5-billion.
On Wednesday Google informed the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers by letter that it intends to enforce its rights to a maximum of 2.25% of all mobile equipment that uses Motorola Technology. This would include the Apple iPhone 4S.
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The iPhone 4S has already sold well over 37-million units and at an average price of US$500 a unit, we’re already looking at US$416-million due to Google – not an amount to be sniffed at.
The letter comes a mere two weeks after Motorola filed a lawsuit against Apple in Florida. In the lawsuit, Motorola said it was suing Apple for infringing six of its patents involving technologies related to wireless antennae, software, data filtering and messaging.
But one cannot wonder if the attempt to get the money from Apple is more of a “thumb up your nose” attempt from Google to show Apple who’s boss.
In the last few years various tech companies seem to spend an inordinate amount of money on suing and counter-suing each other for violations of patents. It seems the company with the most patents wins. Only time will tell if such a strategy will hold out.
Consumers don’t care about patent wars — what they want is new tech that costs less and works better than before.
